SPEECH 



OF 



y 



ARTHUR W. AUSTIN, 

OF AYEST EOXBUKY, f 



AT 



CHARLESTOWN, MASS., NOV. 1, 1856. 




Mr. Chairman : 

It is a long time since I have had the pleasure and honor of appearing 
before the citizens of my native town. I do not feel that I am here a 
stranger, and I am without embarrassment ; for in addition to the 
brilliant artificial light that illumines, I see one more brilliant still, 
in the light of the countenances of those around and before me, who 
in all emergencies — in all times of trial, I have ever known to be true 
to their country. 

I do not intend to address you upon any matters merely local, nor 
do I deem it necessary to urge you to vote for Mr. Buchanan — for you 
have sense enough to do that without any recommendation from me. 
And I should hardly have alluded to that gentleman, had I not wished 
publicly to thank a Delegate from this District to the Cincinnati 
Convention (Capt. W. W. Pierce) , for his sense, courage and manliness, 
though holding office under the present Administration, in maintaining, 
from first to last, in the Convention, the superior claims of James 
Buchanan to the Presidency of these United States. Friends and 
Fellow-Citizens, it is of your Country I intend to speak. 

And here let me ask you what people ever possessed a country with 
such great natural and acquired advantages, as we enjoy? It is a 
country in which we may well take pride. The only spot where Freedom 
hath found a peaceful refuge, — the only place on Earth where the 
spirit of Liberty walks free and uncontrolled. 






2 SPEECH OF ARTHTR W. ArSTIN. 

We have a climate delightful and varied, — equal in all and superior 
in many respects, to that of any other laud. A broad ocean separates 
U3 from the distresses, the contaminations and the corruptions of 
Europe. 

Our mountains and our valleys, — our hillsides and our plains, are 
filled with luxuriant beauty, — are teeming with life and verdure; 
throughout our vast domain is the busy hum of industry and honorable 
and peaceful labor, and in time of harvest our fields are burdened with 
the bounties of nature. Great are our facilities of communication, 
through an almost illimitable region ; we possess a new Ophir at one 
extremity of the Union ; the waves of the Atlantic and the Pacific 
wash our shores. In our western country are magnificent lakes, dense 
forests, rolling prairies, with vast streams forever flowing and which 
will forever flow, fertilizing the soil and affording abundant opportunity 
to the husbandman to transport wheresoever he will the rich and 
varied blessings of a generous autumn. 

In addition to our great natural advantages to crown " the circle of 
our felicities " we have an organic law, — a political, a social compact, 
which places us pre-eminent over all the other nations of the Globe, — 
a glorious Constitution, which binds us together as one people. That 
Constitution we are bound to uphold. Something less than a century 
ago, there was a country under the dominion of a British King, known 
as the third George of England. After a long protracted, and distressing 
war, he lost the brightest jewels of his crown. Sometime after that, 
a Tory of the Eevolution — for they had Tories then, as we have 
traitors now — sent the monarch a barrel of our American apples to 
console him for the loss of a world. The king had never seen such 
apples, — the soil of England cannot produce them, — the sun of Eng- 
land cannot ripen them. Turning one over in his hand, reflections of 
the past doubtless thronging in his mind, tradition reports that he 
exclaimed in an undertone " the country that produced this was worth 
fighting for." And so our fathers thought, that such a country as 
this was worth fighting for ; and when success gladdened their arms, 
they thought it worth preserving. 

"We all know how they sought to secure to their posterity the rights 
and liberties they had achieved ; their success is told, in our record of 
unexampled prosperity, in our career of uninterrupted glory. 

Is there any reason that under the compact our fathers formed, that 



iPEECH OF ARTHUR W. AUSTIN. S 

we should not live together in peace and harmony ? If it ever has been 
our policy as a nation to maintain fiiendly relations with all foreign 
countries, how much more eminently does it become us to preserve 
hannony, peace and good fellowship with those who are bound together 
with us in this vast republican empire ! 

I propose to make brief enquiry as to our relations with some of the 
other States of the Union. 

Sir, we have frequently heard the cry, that there was a disposition 
on the part of our brethren at the South, to make aggressions upon the 
Xorth, in defiance of the Constitution under which we live. After 
careful examination, I, a citizen of the United States, residing in Massa- 
chusetts, standing on Northern ground, emphatically deny that there 
is any foundation for the charge. I claim simple justice for the South, 
and assert simple truth when I say, that the South as a body has 
never consented to anything derogatory to the North, has never inter- 
fered with the rights of the North, or in the domestic or municipal 
affairs of the North, either before or since the adoption of the Consti- 
tution. If there have been aggressions, they have been made by the 
North, and the South has either acquiesced, or acted simply in the 
defensive. And it must be conceded on all hands, that the South has 
ever manfully maintained the honor of our whole country, in the cabinet 
and in the field. It was the firmness of Southern statesmen that 
brought the war of 1812 to a successful issue; it was the heroism of 
a Southern warrior on the plains of New Orleans that closed that war 
in a blaze of glory, and left our flag proudly flying on the battlements ; 
our national honor untarnished, and our national glory undimmed. 

But let us go back and trace history up, and set history right ! In 
the year 1783, before the formation of the present Constitution, Virginia, 
one of the Southern or Slave States, had included in her patent, all the 
North-west Territory, and at the desire or suggestion of the then Federal 
Congress, freely, without consideration, she made cession of her right 
thereto, and as it is expressed in the act of cession, "for the common 
benefit of the Union." In 1787, still before our Constitution, an 
Ordinance was proposed, said to be drafted by Northern hands, by 
which Slavery was to be forever excluded from the whole of the territory 
which Virginia had ceded for the " common benefit of the Union." 

This Ordinance, known as the Ordinance of 1787, was passed, and 
to the eternal honor of Virginia, she assented by legislative action to 



4 SPEECH OF AKTHtTR W. ATTSTIN. 

the terms thereof, thereby excluding her own planters from a chance 
of colonizing the very territory she once had owned, and which she had 
yielded for the "common benefit." Does this look like aggression? 
She was not called upon to assent to her own exclusion, but her course 
has ever been marked by generosity. When our Constitution was 
formed, all the States being put on equality, this Ordinance was vir- 
tually abrogated ; but no attempts have ever been made by Yirginia 
or the South to interfere with any part of this territory, which was 
suflfered to grow up and be settled by the North. Already five large 
Free States have been formed from the territory that Virginia freely 
gave, — Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, — containing 
in themselves about four times as many square miles as there are in all 
New England. And the sons and daughters of New England, and the 
sons and daughters of the North, have for more than half a century 
revelled in this rich inheritance ; and in the territory ceded by Virginia 
are still uncounted and uncountable acres for the Northern colonist to 
enjoy, for centuries yet to come. And if so disposed, Vii-ginia might 
have insisted that the whole territory should be erected into one State, 
and then there would have been but two ITnitcd States Senators, instead 
of the ten at present ; but, without narrowness, and with forecast and 
magnanimity combined, her Statesmen assented to a division of the 
territory into not less than three nor more than five States. 

The census shows that Virginia, in addition to her slave population, 
supports, feeds and clothes more than twice as many free colored blacks 
as there are in all New England. Suppose she had retained the 
territory, she could have colonized it with blacks, bond or free, and 
relieved herself from their support. For Slavery in Virginia, as else- 
where in our Country, is a political necessity, presenting a question 
merely of political economy, in what manner the colored population 
can best be fed, clothed or supported, or managed with the most 
humanity. 

This rich inheritance of which I have spoken, was then the gift of 
Virginia to the North, — Virginia, one of those Southern States that 
our northern fanatics would pursue " with fire-brands, arrows and 
death ! " 

Ever generous, ever disinterested Virginia ! She has always been 
ready to make sacrifices for the public good, — for the common benefit. 
1 have scarcely been within her borders, — I am but slightly acquainted 



SPEECH OP ARTHUR W. AUSTIN. O 

with any of her sons, but from childhood ray heart has always expanded, 
reflecting upon her jiatriotic sacrifices, and her noble history. 

Ever glorious Virginia ! She has given to the world the model of a 
warrior, a statesman and a patriot. She has given to this Union 
statesmen wliose disinterested devotion to the interests of our whole 
country, has never been surpassed, — has never been criualled in the 
annals of a world ! 

Her mighty dead arise, — arise in matchless array before me. Among 
her orators are Giles, KANDOLnr, "Wirt and Patrick Hexry. I see the 
mild, thoughtful, philosophic face of Madison, — the bold, resolute, 
undaunted front of Monroe, — and Jefferson, his countenance lighted 
up with youthful enthusiasm, as when he first pledged his soul to the 
cause of his country. And above all and before all, the revered and 
dignified presence of him who was " first in war, first in peace, and 
first in the hearts of his countrymen." Sir, I was about to ask you 
if wc have any quarrel with Virginia, but 1 will not put the question 
in that unworthy form ; but. Sir, do you not feel, do you not recognise 
this Virginia of which I speak, as a part of your country '? And is 
there any in this large assembly, so void of manliness, so lost to all 
patriotic emotion, as not to determine in his inmost mind that she 
shall never be other than a portion of his country ? 

And now, Sir, a few words as to aggressions upon the domestic and 
municipal concerns of the South. There is no instance on record, in 
which the South has interfered with our internal aifairs ; but, it is 
within my own knowledge and observation that for more than a quar- 
ter of a century, constant, continual attempts have been made by a 
portion of the North to carry the torch of the incendiary to the 
dwellings, — and the knife of the assassin to the throats of those who 
are of our common race and common blood, and who are living with us 
under the same political compact. Yes, a portion of the North, with 
head quarters in Massachusetts, has endeavored for more than a gen- 
eration, to invite the blacks of Carolina to insuiTcction and revolt — to 
make them dissatisfied with their condition, by throwing among them 
pictorial representations of imaginary horrors, which should stir them 
up to assail their masters, and to destroy the hand that fed them. 
First they sent through the post ofiicc, and when that was properly 
checked — by white emissaries, and when that became dangerous, by 
black emissaries on board of our coasting vessels. And the doings of 
these fanatics, I say it with the deepest emotions of mournful regret, 
have had the sanction of our legislative assemblies. 



6 SPEECH OP ARTHUR W. AUSTIN. 

Carolina was obliged to act on the defensive — to make provisions to 
guard against the torch of the incendiary lighted in Massachusetts, 
and more than one Legislative assembly of Massachusetts, knowing 
the whole merits of the controversy, or not knowing, most deplorably 
ignorant, was base enough to attempt to make quarrel with Carolina 
on this subject, and had the impertinence to authorize the sending a 
spy into the territory of a sovereign State with which we were in 
amity. Massachusetts has again and again proclaimed her sympathy 
with these fanatics and disturbers of the public peace, by sending 
numbers of them to the National Legislature. Again and again, I say 
it mournfully, has Massachusetts exhibited a want of disposition to 
preserve peace and harmony with the South. AYhile the South, as a 
body has never made aggression upon us, or sought to interfere with 
our concerns — and has only sought a fair interchange of commercial 
commodities, and friendly courtesies. 

Further, such has been the baseness of some that have found their 
way from Massachusetts to the councils of the nation, that they have 
imputed to South Carolina a want of Eevolutionary patriotism. South 
Carolina can take care of herself at any time. But her revolutionary 
fame is a part of the history of our country — it belongs to me — I have 
a share in it — it is the common property of us all. I have examined 
with care the statistics of the Eevolution. The South Carolina record 
is unimpeachable. "With a territory then more than six times as 
large as Massachusetts, — with a small — a limited population — tenth 
in population — tenth in resources, among the then States of the con- 
federacy, with this large territory to protect — she still contributed her 
full quota to the common cause in our Eevolutionary struggle, and 
when that was over, she promptly ratified the Constitution ! And she, 
too, at the suggestion of Congress, made liberal cession of lands to the 
Union. In the language of the act of cession. South Carolina, by her 
legislative Assembly, says, " the State is willing to make liberal 
cession to the United States, for the common benefit of the Union," 
and to adopt every measure which can tent! to promote the honor and 
dignity of the United States and strengthen their Federal Union ! 
And this is the land, that our fanatics for years have sought to des- 
olate — that our Northern demagogues now think it policy to defame. 

The land of Middleton, of Laurens, and of llutledgc — she needs no 
defence ! The birth place of Jackson — the land of JIarion and 
Sumpter. Good God, Sir, she needs no defender. 



SPEECH OF ARTHUR W. AUSTIN. 7 

But let me ask, the cavillers ; if tlie North sent General Greene to 
Carolina — did not the South send Washington to Dorchester Heights? 
And would South Carolina have been so overrun, so persecuted by the 
enemies of our independence had it not been understood that she was 
eminently patriotic ? 

Sir, South Carolina and Virginia are not the only States, that have 
suffered from the constant warfare countenanced here. Our wretched 
fanatics, in some measure sustained by the vicious state of public sen- 
timent here, are constantly sending their incendiary missiles, into 
those other Southern communities, with which we have solemn league 
and covenant — political alliance, friendly, commercial and domestic 
relations. Our brethren of the Southern States generally, have been 
ruthlessly pursued for years by a portion of the North — with the 
fierceness natural to bloodhounds — coupled with the fabled ferocity of 
demons. And for this conduct there is not the shadow of excuse. 
They have never interfered with lis. And the blood of New England 
courses through the Union — there is not a Southern state where it 
does not freely run. The blood that flows in my veins, — bounds 
warmly through the veins of my kindred — in Louisiana — in Mississippi 
— and in Texas ; and this warfare is upon our kindred. 

Sir, in view of our revolutionary sufferings — our common prosperity 
— our common glory — our social compact — commercial intercourse — 
domestic relations and kindred ties, — In view of these, I proclaim, 
the conduct of a portion of the North, towards our Southern 
brethren — to be unfair and unmanly — ungenerous and ignoble ! 

Our people at the North appear to be the victims of a false philan- 
thropy — at the same time, they appear to have a very imperfect idea 
of the nature of our government. They never seem to think that each 
State is a Sovereignty — having all the attributes of a State, except 
those they have voluntarily parted with to the General Government. 

I do not wish to speak unkindly of our own State ; " Massachusetts, 
with all thy faults I love thee still ! " But my love of truth and my 
love of country are superior to all other considerations. You perceive 
what a noble territory Virginia has given to the Union. The govern- 
ment of your country has received towards its support, from lands 
ceded by Virginia, Georgia, South and North Carolina, immense sums 
which have gone to relieve you from debt and from burdens. !Massa- 
chusctts owned large tracts in !Maine, which she never ceded for the 
" common benefit," but when ilainc was made a State, she claimed her 



8 SPEECH OP ARTHUR W. AUSTIN. 

proportion, and from it has not yet ceased to realize. I mention these 
facts, not to depreciate Massachusetts, but to do justice to the patriotism 
of the South. And if these United States were all in harmony, and 
there is now disaffection, let those tremble upon whom rests the dread 
responsibility of the present. 

The people of Massachusetts, however, seem to think it is their 
business to guide and direct every part of the Union. If Massachusetts 
had had her way, and the direction of affairs, Louisiana never would 
have been acquired ; we should have succumbed to England in the 
war of 1812 ; we should not have had Florida ; Texas would have been 
lost to us ; and California never gained ! 

But thanks to an ever patriotic democracy, the Union under our 
Constitution has prospered. Of the thirty-one States, is there any you 
could spare ? Is there any one you would obliterate from the map ? 
Would you yield anything we have achieved '? AYould the people of 
this country repeal anything that the Democracy have established ? 
And is there any one candidly reflecting upon the leading measures 
advocated by and established by the Democracy during the last half 
century, can fail to see that its action has been judicious ? Experience 
has shown our wisdom, — time confirmed our judgment. 

Sir, I am aware of the vicious public sentiment that does prevail, 
and has prevailed in Massachusetts, most of the time since LSOO. ,A 
vicious public sentiment, — a spirit of sectionalism, — before which our 
greatest and best have cowered ; a spirit of sectionalism, to which to 
obtain and maintain position they have had to succumb ; a spirit of 
sectionalism on which our demagogues have ridden to power. It is 
time to attempt to roll back the tide, lest it should go on increasing, 
and eventually whelm us in a common ruin. 

Patriotism, in its enlarged sense, has in Massachusetts been long 
enough at a discount. Though unfashionable, it is a fire that forever 
lives in the hearts of the Democracy. And with me he is a Democrat, 
whatever other name he calls himself by, who stands by his country, 
the Union and the Constitution. 

Of the great that are gone, as long as Sajiuel Dexter and Mr. 
Webster were supposed to be sectional, they commanded majorities ; 
but the moment Mr. Dexter left a faction, and went for his country, he 
was deserted. And Mr. Webster, great as he unquestionably was, in 
Massachusetts, was deserted by a portion of his former supporters, and 
was by them vilified, sacrificed and proscribed the moment he pro- 



SPEECH OF ARTHUR W. AUSTIN. 3 

claimed he had a country. Of our distinguished living statesmen, Mr. 
Choate has been deserted by a portion of his party, ever since he com- 
plimented the Democracy on the "odor of their nationality," at Wor- 
cester. He has never been forgiven by them for considering patriotism 
a virtue. And ]\Ir. Winthrop has never received the full support of 
his party, since he uttered in Faneuil Hall, the patriotic sentiment, 
" Our Country, however bounded." 

I come now to speak more particularly of the value of the Union. 
Many affect to consider this a light matter. Its importance, its vital 
consequence, in my opinion cannot be too often presented. I have had 
occasion to remaik before, and I now say that there is no State in the 
Union to which Union is more important than to the State of Massa- 
chusetts, and no State that from the Union has received so many 
advantages. I have not time to go into much of detail. But by 
means of our internal commerce, by the market for our manufacturing 
products, which the Southern States have afforded, by the occupations 
which they have given we have been prospered almost beyond belief.* 
"Where rivers flowed sluggishly along, where proprietors were almost 
ready to abandon our lands, in despair — villages — towns, aye, cities 
have sprung up, enriched by the opportunities which under our 
Constitution we have been enabled to enjoy, and without which we 
should have been subject to such annoyances, that our citizens 
would gladly have emigrated to lauds more fertile, and sterile farms 
would have been deserted. Sir, I do not believe that it is in the. 
power of the ungrateful among us to overthrow the social compact 
under which we live. Fear, Sir, is not one of my attributes. I have 
still an abiding confidence in the people of this country ; the vandal 
spirit of puritanism and the tiger spirit of fanaticism may for 
a time have their course in the moral and political world, but in the 
run intelligence and sagacity shall conquer. But, Sir, another ques- 
tion comes up, how long can inharmonious relations exist without 
producing violence. How long are traitorous agitators — disturbers of 
the public peace to be borne with ? A continual dropping will wear 
away stones. And I. for one, would rather fight than be forever subject 
to the despotism of fanaticism. I know there are those who think 
they can go on in a spirit of hostility to the South, without danger to 

* It is a most singular thing as marking conspicuously the ungrateful spirit of a 
portion of our people, that the largest votes given against the Union party of our 
country come from those localities which have received the most beneht from com- 
merce "with the South, and without which those localities would be necessarily 
depopulated. Abingtou, Lynn, Danvers, and the towns engaged in the leather trade 
generally, illustrate this assertion ! 



10 SPEECH OF ARTHUR W. ATTSTEf. 

the Union ; but, Sir, in the language of Mr. Jefferson, without har- 
mony and affection liberty and even life itself are but dreary things. 
And what value is Union, unless there be a different spirit exhibited 
from that now prevalent ? An honorable Senator of the United States, 
from South Carolina, in the goodness of his heart, expressed the hu- 
mane hope that if wc could not exist peaceably together that we might 
have sense enough peaceably to part. A humane hope but a vain 
imagination. There can be no such thing. The same madness that 
would dissolve the Union would drench the country in blood. 

There is nothing in the history of nations, in the past history of the 
world, that will warrant the supposition that our Union can go down 
without a struggle, or without an array of one party against another, 
bringing — producing a bloody conflict in which the Union will be 
more fully established by the patriotic, the sagacious, and the wise, 
or the whole hopes of man crushed by a willing surrender to despot- 
ism. I have no fear of the result of such a contest — there are sound 
heads and patriotic hands that will see the Eepublic safe. Still, if the 
madness of the present hour continue — if the madness of the present 
hour increase and prevail ; a contest for the continuance, the perma- 
nency of the Union must sooner or later come. If for that there is to 
be a contest, — God, to whom I am every day grateful, — Great God, 
ever bountiful to me, grant that such contest come in my day — before 
this eye shall be dim — before this arm shall be nerveless. I wish to 
leave no such contest a legacy to my children. If such a contest is 
to be, I wish to be in that fight, and to help settle that question, so 
that those who come after may dwell in peace and happiness. 

Not Sir, but what I have full confidence in that boy at home. I 
have no fear but that he will tread a career of unfaltering patriotism. 
I have already put him on the road. He is barely six years of age. 
Already he has raised his right hand before the shades of Washington 
and Jackson, and I have sworn him to devotion to his ivhole country. 
Not that counti-y, which in the limited vision and narrow range of some 
is bounded by Taunton and Groton — not that contained in JMassachu- 
setts, — not that comprised in the number of square miles that consti- 
tute New England — but, the United States of America is his country 
— wherever the flag of our Union waves there is his country. And if 
he have not already in his young bosom — room — range enough for that 
whole country — he is no true son of mine. 

But, Sir, to the disorganizers — to the disturbers of the public peace 
— to the wolves in sheep's clothing — to those in New England with 



SPEECH OF ARTHUK W. AUSTIN. 11 

whom treachery to their neighbor, and treason to their country is 
a daily thought and a nightly dream, I say, beware. The priests and 
the demagogues who are sowing the wind — may reap the whirlwind. 
To those who seek to cover themselves, in their impertinent interfer- 
ence in the affairs of the South, with the mantle of religion ; I say 
I too have diligently read the Scriptures — their deep and pure moral- 
ity I ackowledge, and trust it is engraven on my heart — but I can 
find no warrant for their conduct — in the recorded opinions — in 
the generous sentiments — in the sublime teachings of the great 
founder of Christianity. Let these beware, there will be a time when 
the delusion even here — will pass away. And when that time comes, 
the reaction will be powerful. There is patriotism enough at the 
North to save New England. Provoke not too far — there is such a 
thing as reaction and retribution for the ungrateful spirit that is now 
rife. If retribution come not until you have excited a civil or servile 
war, it will then come in terror and in storm. The longer delayed 
the more terrific. A just Nemesis may overtake you, and if she 
come — she shall come — she will come — not only with the point of 
Achilles, but, with the tread and crush of the Titan ! 

And now let me briefly call attention to the sentiments of some that 
are gone. 

You have a vivid picture of the benefits that would accrue from 
Union, in the prophecies of JMadison before the adoption of our Consti- 
tution, — prophecies now reality. His master mind portrayed with 
equal vigor the evils that would flow from dissolution — standing 
armies — a police at every cross-road — soldiers billeted upon you — a dis- 
tracted people — with broken ties, and desolated homes — life accompanied 
by all the dark catalogue of human misfortunes, of human errors and 
human crimes. Look around, — view our prosperity, and then ask 
yourselves what might have been, had we not been shielded by our 
glorious Constitution. 

You have the patriotic warnings of Washixgton — which should be 
familiar to you all — the patriotic counsels of Jacksox, into which he 
poured his soul ; and among our own Statesmen, there is one who tells 
you in his Inaugural, that your Constitution " has promoted the lasting 
welfare of your country," and that " a dissolution of the Union would 
overthrow all the enjoyments of our present lot, and all our earthly 
hopes of the future." Emphatically he says " the Union is the Ark 
of our salvation." These are sentiments which caunot be too often 
presented, or too strongly impressed. These are the sentiments of the 
great, the wise, the patriotic and the trusted of the past. 



12 BPEECH OF ARTHUR W. AUSTIN. 

Let US all stand by our country — let our Constitution be sacredly 
maintained — let the love of Union be forever impressed — "Know not 
sectional or geographical distinctions " — consider the welfare of each 
as your own, and if you in some respects are more favored, look not 
with the less favor upon those who- you think are struggling under 
disadvantages from which you are happily free. Above all, cultivate 
harmonious relations, and avoid subjects of contention with all members 
of our confederacy, — consider the distant child of yesterday as much 
entitled to your regard and affection, as any that is older or nearer, — 
live and let live, — there is room enough in this country for all, to the 
thousandth generation. 

Have no sympathy, — no alliance with those who have no loyalty to 
the Constitution, — no sympathy, no alliance with those who have in 
all emergencies been found against their country. Make your country 
the subject of your " veneration and love," — think how we have been 
prospered, — how many blessings we have enjoyed under the Constitu- 
tion as it is. Let your last thought when you sink to peaceful and 
refreshing slumber, be of your country ; let it be your first thought at 
early dawn, when you first awake to the grateful light of morning. 
Ever have within your hearts a sentiment of thankfulness, that God 
has cast your lines in pleasant places, — that he has permitted you to 
live in and to enjoy such a country. 

These sentiments — these principles have a powerful response from 
the soul of patriotism, in the shades of Mount Vernon, — the breeze 
that bears the echo carries them to Ashland and to Marshfieid, — to 
Monticello and the Hermitage, — where great, where mighty, where 
patriotic heai'ts repose. 

Eally, then, round the flag of your country, — that flag with the thirty- 
one stars — the flag of our country — of the Union, — which floated 
triumphantly over Jackson at New Orleans, — that Perry bore in his 
wave tossed boat at Erie, — which Hull, and Decatur, and Stewart, 
and Bainbridge immortalized, when they taught proud England that 
she was no longer the mistress of the ocean, — the flag that waved to 
the rejoicing breeze over Taylor, at Buena Vista, — that Scott bore 
with glory to the gates of Mexico. That flag is in the hands of the 
Democracy, — under tiat sign we shall conquer. 

" Lonjr, loiii; mny it wave, 
O'ei* the land of the free — 
O'er the home of the brave! " 

At least, let it not be tarnished during our generation 1 



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